Zerline Nirenstein was born in Brody, Galicia, in 1872. She was the eldest child of the banker Isidor Nirenstein and his wife Emma, née Schorr. Zerline's brothers, the twins Hugo and Martin, were born in Lemberg in 1875. The family, related to the art dealer Otto Nirenstein, moved to Vienna in 1881 and lived at Schellinggasse 1, in Vienna’s 1st district, from May 1900. After Isidor Nirenstein's death in 1904, his widow Emma lived with their two sons at Zedlitzgasse 7. Zerline Nirenstein attended the art school for women and girls from 1901 onwards, was trained as a graphic artist and worked as a photographer. Emma Nirenstein died in 1915 and, like her husband, was buried at the first gate of the Jewish section of Vienna's Central Cemetery. Martin Nirenstein, who liked to spend time studying art history in the library of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (later re-named the State Arts and Crafts Museum, and now the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts), died in an accident in 1922. Because of his attachment to the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, to which he had already donated a catalogue in 1921, Zerline and Hugo Nirenstein decided – as documented in a newspaper report – to leave their brother's books and newspaper cuttings to the museum. However, there is no record of the handover in the inventory of books or art papers in today's MAK. The main and textile inventories do, on the other hand, contain evidence that Zerline Nirenstein donated a 19th century silk children's dress to the museum in December 1923. In October 1929, Zerline Nirenstein registered her occupancy of her brother Hugo's flat at Zedlitzgasse 7/5, and on 4 January 1938, she moved to Nedergasse 21/8, in Vienna’s 19th district. Presumably in connection with this move, Zerline Nirenstein donated two books, 65 pamphlets, eleven photographs and an ornamental engraving to the library and art sheet collection of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry in February 1938.

After the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, Zerline and Hugo Nirenstein were affected by National Socialist persecution. In spring 1938, they moved to Lederergasse 18/5 in Vienna’s 8th district. In May 1938, the Library and Works on Paper Collection of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, which was renamed the Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum in Wien (State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna) in the same month, inventoried six books, six ornamental engravings and a portrait as gifts from Zerline Nirenstein. Later, presumably in September 1938, eleven almanacs with the provenance "Zerline Nirenstein, Vienna" were entered in the book inventory. On 10 October 1941, Zerline and Hugo Nirenstein had to move to a collective apartment at Berggasse 4/19, in Vienna’s 9th district, from where they were deported to the Theresienstadt/Terezín ghetto on 14 July 1942. Two months later, Hugo Nirenstein was taken to the Treblinka extermination camp and murdered. Zerline Nirenstein died in Theresienstadt on 5 December 1942.

In March 2024, the Art Restitution Advisory Board recommended the restitution of the 24 works that had been inventoried in May and September 1938 in the State Arts and Crafts Museum, now the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts.

Susanne Hehenberger, based on the research of Leonhard Weidinger, 5 June 2024